1883 in Scotland

Centuries:	17th; 18th; 19th; 20th; 21st;
Decades:	1860s; 1870s; 1880s; 1890s; 1900s;
See also:	List of years in Scotland; Timeline of Scottish history; 1883 in: The UK • Wales • Elsewhere; Scottish football: 1882–83 • 1883–84

Events from the year 1883 in Scotland.

Incumbents

20 January – Fenian dynamite campaign: In Glasgow, bombs explode at Tradeston Gasworks, Possil Street Bridge and Buchanan Street railway station; about a dozen people are injured.^[1]^[2]
28 April – the first rugby sevens tournament is played at Melrose RFC.^[3]
3 June – Sabbatarian riot at Stromeferry: the local fishing community prevent the loading of fish (caught by east coast fishermen) from Stornoway ships to railway on a Sunday.^[4]
3 July – SS Daphne sinks on launch at Alexander Stephen and Sons' Linthouse shipyard, leaving 124 dead.^[5]
29 August – Dunfermline Carnegie Library, the first Carnegie library in the world, is opened in Andrew Carnegie's hometown, Dunfermline.^[6]
4 October – the Boys' Brigade is founded in Glasgow.^[7]
November–December – the Tay Whale (a humpback) appears in the Firth of Tay; on 31 December it is harpooned but escapes, dying later.
Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank at Dumbarton completed.
Edinburgh Mathematical Society founded.

Curling
- Scotland's first boys' club is established in Wanlockhead.
Rugby union
- Scotland take part in the inaugural Home Nations Championship.
- Scotlands first home international game played at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh.
- First match against Wales, hosted at St. Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea; Scotland win by three goals to one.

17 January – Compton Mackenzie, author and co-founder in 1928 of the Scottish National Party (born in England; died 1972)
27 January – James Lithgow, industrialist (died 1952)
24 March – Dorothy Campbell, golfer (died 1945 in the United States)
12 April – Francis Cadell, Colourist painter (died 1937)
15 May – Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, British Army officer and Unionist politician (killed in action 1915 in France)
5 June – Mary Helen Young, nurse and resistance fighter during World War II (died 1945 in Germany)^[8]
9 July – John Watson, advocate and sheriff, Solicitor General for Scotland 1929–31 (died 1944)
21 August – Victor Fortune, British Army officer (died 1949)
17 October – A. S. Neill, educationalist (died 1973 in England)
17 December – David Powell, stage and silent film actor (died 1925 in the United States)